DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Applicant's submission filed on May 14, 2026 has been entered.
Claims 1-10, 12, 16-17, and 19-20 are cancelled.
No claims are amended.
Claims 11, 13-15, 18, and 21-27 are pending in this application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 11 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rodenbeck et al (US 2013/0141270 A1) in view of McEwan et al (US 5774091 A).
Regarding Claim 11, Rodenbeck teaches a wireless device comprising [0014 for transmitting UWB pulses]:
a transmitter circuit configured to generate an ultra-wideband UWB impulse waveform comprising a plurality of pulses [0014 for pulsed waveform];
an antenna port coupled to an antenna configured to emit the UWB impulse waveform toward a nearby object and absorb an echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform reflected by the nearby object [figure 1 element with 0015-0016 for object ranges (distance) and 0027];
wherein a roundtrip propagation duration of the UWB impulse waveform between the antenna and the nearby object is substantially shorter than a pulse width of each of the plurality of pulses [0014, and 0018-0020 for sub nano-second pulse width and bandwidth of 1GHz];
a receiver circuit configured to receive the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform to thereby determine a distance to the nearby object [0014 for UWB receivers, 0028];
receive the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform from the port [0014].
Rodenbeck fails to explicitly teach and an echo-cancelling acoustic delay circuit configured to: receive the UWB impulse waveform from the transmitter circuit delay the UWB impulse waveform by a temporal delay, provide the delayed UWB impulse waveform to the port, delay the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform by the temporal delay, and provide the delayed echo of the emitted impulse waveform to the receiver circuit.
McEwan has a radar range finder and hidden object locator (abstract) and teaches a transmit antenna port, and a receive antenna port and an echo-cancelling acoustic delay circuit configured to [col 3, lines 1-20 for transmitting pules and over a range of delays with col 7, lines 50-60]:
receive the UWB impulse waveform from the transmitter circuit delay the UWB impulse waveform by a temporal delay [col 3, lines 1-20 for sweep times between transmission of pulses],
provide the delayed UWB impulse waveform to the port, delay the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform by the temporal delay [col 1, lines 60-67 for ultrawide band radar, with col 3, lines 1-20 for a range of delays],
and provide the delayed echo of the emitted impulse waveform to the receiver circuit [col 2, lines 55-67].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the object position techniques, as disclosed by Rodenbeck, further including the acoustic delay calculations as taught by McEwan for the purpose to produces a sample signal representing magnitude of the received echoes in equivalent time (McEwan, col 3, lines 10-20).
Regarding Claim 23, Rodenbeck teaches a method for detecting a nearby object in a wireless device comprising [0014 for transmitting UWB pulses]:
generating an ultra-wideband (UWB) impulse waveform comprising a plurality of pulses [0014 for pulsed waveform];
emitting the UWB impulse waveform toward the nearby object, wherein a roundtrip propagation duration of the UWB impulse waveform between an antenna emitting the UWB impulse waveform and the nearby object is substantially shorter than a pulse width of each of the plurality of pulses [0014, and 0018-0020 for sub nano-second pulse width and bandwidth of 1GHz];
absorbing an echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform reflected by the nearby object [figure 1 element with 0015-0016 for object ranges (distance) and 0027];
and determining a distance to the nearby object based on the UWB impulse waveform and the delayed echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform [0014-0016 and 0018].
Rodenbeck fails to explicitly teach delaying the UWB impulse waveform by a temporal delay; delaying the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform by the temporal delay.
McEwan has a radar range finder and hidden object locator (abstract) and teaches delaying the UWB impulse waveform by a temporal delay [col 3, lines 1-20 for transmitting pules and over a range of delays with col 7, lines 50-60]:
delaying the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform by the temporal delay [col 1, lines 60-67 for ultrawide band radar, with col 3, lines 1-20 for a range of delays].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the object position techniques, as disclosed by Rodenbeck, further including the acoustic delay calculations as taught by McEwan for the purpose to produces a sample signal representing magnitude of the received echoes in equivalent time (McEwan, col 3, lines 10-20).
Claims 24-27 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rodenbeck et al (US 2013/0141270 A1) in view of McEwan et al (US 5774091 A) as applied to claim 23 above, and in further view of Walker et al (WO 2005/033728 A).
Regarding Claim 24, Rodenbeck fails to explicitly teach splitting the UWB impulse waveform into an in-phase transmit signal and a quadrature transmit signal; delaying the in-phase transmit signal by the temporal delay; delaying the quadrature transmit signal by the temporal delay; and regenerating the UWB impulse waveform from the in-phase transmit signal and the quadrature transmit signal.
Walker has apparatus are provided for radar systems using multiple pulses that are shorter than the expected range delay extent of the target to be imaged (abstract) and teaches splitting the UWB impulse waveform into an in-phase transmit signal and a quadrature transmit signal [0027 for using I/Q signals for data processing];
delaying the in-phase transmit signal by the temporal delay [0078 for delaying pulses and generating I and Q signals];
delaying the quadrature transmit signal by the temporal delay [0078, 0080];
and regenerating the UWB impulse waveform from the in-phase transmit signal and the quadrature transmit signal [0080, 0094].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the object position techniques, as disclosed by Rodenbeck, further including the I/Q signal calculations as taught by Walker for the purpose to produce a representation of the range delay profile signal (Walker, 0094).
Regarding Claim 25, Rodenbeck fails to explicitly teach cancelling a transmit (TX) echo in the UWB impulse waveform as a result of delaying the in-phase transmit signal and the quadrature transmit signal by the temporal delay.
Walker has apparatus are provided for radar systems using multiple pulses that are shorter than the expected range delay extent of the target to be imaged (abstract) and teaches cancelling a transmit (TX) echo in the UWB impulse waveform as a result of delaying the in-phase transmit signal and the quadrature transmit signal by the temporal delay [0060 for bounce cancellation (echo multipath), and 0078, 0080].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the object position techniques, as disclosed by Rodenbeck, further including the I/Q signal calculations as taught by Walker for the purpose to output a detection signal indicating the presence of a given pulse during a given timeslot for decoding purposes (Walker, 0078).
Regarding Claim 26, Rodenbeck teaches splitting the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform into an in-phase receive signal and a quadrature receive signal; delaying the in-phase receive signal by the temporal delay; delaying the quadrature receive signal by the temporal delay; and regenerating the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform from the in-phase receive signal and the quadrature receive signal.
Walker has apparatus are provided for radar systems using multiple pulses that are shorter than the expected range delay extent of the target to be imaged (abstract) and teaches splitting the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform into an in-phase receive signal and a quadrature receive signal [0027 for using I/Q signals for data processing];
delaying the in-phase receive signal by the temporal delay [0078 for delaying pulses and generating I and Q signals];
delaying the quadrature receive signal by the temporal delay [0078, 0080];
and regenerating the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform from the in-phase receive signal and the quadrature receive signal [0080, 0094].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the object position techniques, as disclosed by Rodenbeck, further including the I/Q signal calculations as taught by Walker for the purpose to produce a representation of the range delay profile signal (Walker, 0094).
Regarding Claim 27, Rodenbeck teaches cancelling a receive (RX) echo in the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform as a result of delaying the in-phase receive signal and the quadrature receive signal by the temporal delay.
Walker has apparatus are provided for radar systems using multiple pulses that are shorter than the expected range delay extent of the target to be imaged (abstract) and teaches cancelling a receive (RX) echo in the echo of the emitted UWB impulse waveform as a result of delaying the in-phase receive signal and the quadrature receive signal by the temporal delay [0060 for bounce cancellation (echo multipath), and 0078, 0080].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the object position techniques, as disclosed by Rodenbeck, further including the I/Q signal calculations as taught by Walker for the purpose to output a detection signal indicating the presence of a given pulse during a given timeslot for decoding purposes (Walker, 0078).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 13-15,18 and 21-22 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments fail to comply with 37 CFR 1.111(b) because they amount to a
general allegation that the claims define a patentable invention without specifically pointing out how the language of the claims patentably distinguishes them from the references.
Applicant’s arguments page 3, second paragraph the applicant argues that Rodenbeck does not teach a round-trip propagation duration with substantially shorter pulse widths. The examiner respectfully disagrees, Rodenbeck teaches the pulse decay to a prescribe level within nano-seconds [Rodenbeck, 0018] suggesting a sub-nanosecond full width half maxim pulse width to keep blind zones in order, inherently requiring the system to resolve round-trip propagation delays shorter than the pulse width.
Applicant’s arguments page 3, last paragraph the applicant states that McEwan fails to teach echo cancelling acoustic delay. The examiner respectfully disagrees, McEwan teaches effectively eliminate ringing and other aberrations induced in the receiver by the near proximity of the transmit antenna [McEwan, abstract] directly anticipating the echo-cancelling function of the claims, by cancelling transmit induced interference to enable accurate reception of nearby object reflections.
Applicant’s arguments page 3, last paragraph the applicant states that McEwan fails to teach echo cancelling acoustic delay circuit to delay the UWB impulse waveform by a temporal delay. The examiner respectfully disagrees, McEwan teaches sampling echoes at a range delay that range may vary by less than 300 nanoseconds, [McEwan, col 3, lines 1-20] thereby adding identical temporal delays to both transmitted pulses and received echoes to prevent overlap.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAMARINA MAKHDOOM whose telephone number is (703)756-1044. The examiner can normally be reached Monday – Thursdays from 8:30 to 5:30 pm eastern time.
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/SAMARINA MAKHDOOM/
Examiner, Art Unit 3648
Prosecution Insights